According to a survey by MetLife, 45 percent of 65-year-old boomers are now fully retired, up from 19 percent in 2008. Another 14 percent say they are officially retired but working part time or seasonally. And of those who continue to work, 37 percent say they plan to retire in 2012.

I found these numbers surprising, but among the dozen or so people who commented, many understood perfectly why so many boomers are packing it in early. However you see it, this provides an interesting glimpse at retirement planning.

Retirement planning is a worldwide issue. The World Health Organization, or WHO, reported last week:

The number of people age 60 and older has doubled since 1980.
The number of people age 80 years and older will quadruple to 395 million by 2050.
Within the next five years, the number of adults age 65 and over will outnumber children younger than age 5.
By 2050, these older adults will outnumber all children younger than age 14.

Given this scenario of an aging population, what can those of us at the epicenter do to help ourselves avoid being victims of this demographic revolution as we slide into retirement?

If you’re lucky enough to work for state or local government, you might think you don’t have to worry so much about retirement planning since you’ve likely been promised a pension. But in recent years, troubles have been brewing among public pension plans all around the country.

In the last week alone, Plansponsor.com reported problems with three state plans:

New Hampshire: The House of Representatives approved a proposal to put an end to pension plans for public workers and instead offers a 401(k)-type plan. Facing a funding shortfall of $4.1 billion-plus for retirement and medical benefits, last year the legislature raised the retirement age at which future workers would qualify for benefits and increased employee contributions to their pension.

How do you achieve retirement security in a time of uncertainty? It feels hard to do even rudimentary retirement planning when you don’t know how much money you’ll have to work with or how much it will take to continue to live comfortably when you’re not working.
Doug Carey, owner and principal of the retirement planning firm WealthTrace, published a piece this morning on SeekingAlpha.com that analyzed a 50-year-old couple’s financial situation. He concluded that if they put half their $500,000 retirement savings in equities and half in short-term Treasury bonds, by age 60, when they hope to retire, the money will have grown to $665,000, given a realistic 6 percent return on equities and 2 percent return on Treasuries.

Boomers are leaving the workforce in droves. Given how lousy the economy has been the last few years, I found this a surprising retirement planning phenomenon. My guess would have been that most people would look at their diminished savings and conclude, given the continuing economic uncertainty, to stay on the job. But according to a new MetLife survey, that’s just not the way it is.

MetLife found that 45 percent of 65-year-old boomers are now fully retired, up from 19 percent in 2008. Another 14 percent say they are officially retired but working part time or seasonally.

If your retirement planning includes a career change, before you go back to school to study for that new career, make sure you will be on the job long enough and earn enough money to make this investment pay off before you hit retirement.

The New York Federal Reserve released data last month showing that of the 37 million people with student loan debt, 11.3 percent are people ages 50 to 59, and 4.2 percent are 60 and older. Of those, 12 percent between the ages of 50 and 59 are late on their payments, and 4.8 percent of those 60 and older are behind.

Here are some retirement assumptions that may be true but are just as likely — based on your numbers — to be wrong.

A Roth IRA or 401(k) will save you money in the end. Before you switch or convert your current account, do the math. For young people with their highest-earning years ahead of them, choosing a Roth individual retirement account, or IRA, will almost certainly pay off. But if you are currently in your highest-earning years, skipping the tax break now is likely to turn out to be a costly mistake. Get your accountant to make some projections before you make up your mind.

Just in time for April Fools’ Day, here are five foolish retirement planning mistakes that lots of people make.

Believing in Santa Claus, the tooth fairy and investment returns that are too good to be true. Just this week, the Texas State Securities Board reported that a shyster who bilked $7 million out of elderly investors will get 15 years in jail while his victims will get bupkis.
Thinking that since grandma died at 65, you will too. According to data released by the U.S. Census Bureau this January, average life expectancy is 78.7 years, But that’s the average.

A recent article in The Ledger, a Lakeland, Fla., newspaper, profiled an 88-year-old man who went back to work three years ago after spending more than 20 years in retirement. George DeMarco took a clerical job earning $7.67 an hour to keep from losing his home and to help make ends meet. He cited the rising cost of living and higher gas prices as reasons why his $1,200 monthly retirement income “just wouldn’t cut it.”

The article cites data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics: “The number of employed people 65 and older rose from 4.3 million in 2002 to 7.2 million this year. The number of working seniors 75 and older is now 1.3 million, up 41.2 percent from a decade ago.”

Montreal-based BMO Financial Group offers these statistics about Americans.

Women live longer than men. By age 85, there are six women for every four men. At age 100, the ratio is more than 2-to-1.
Women earn less than men, and that translates into less savings. In 2010, women earned 81 cents for every $1 men earned.
Women have more intermittent work histories. It is hard to get around the fact that women have the babies.
Widowhood or divorce reduces women’s income. The average age of widowhood is 65. In the first year after a divorce, twice as many women than men had an income below the poverty level.

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